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Life On Lookout

"Alan Shuptrine: Appalachian Watercolors of the Serpentine Chain" opens at the Tennessee State Museum Tomorrow

18-May-2017by Merrell McGinness

"Beloved" by Alan Shuptrine

On May 19, Nashville’s Tennessee State Museum will open a show with 60 watercolors, representing five years’ worth of Alan Shuptrine’s work. But the significance behind each painting dates back much further – as in several hundred millennia.

Running underneath the Appalachian Trail is a dark green and mysterious mineral called serpentine. A mountain chain in Great Britain shares this same mineral vein, indicating we were once linked before continental drift over 200 million years ago.

Ironically, when the 18th century settlers from Great Britain moved into the Appalachians, they were coming home to the very same mountains and serpentine they had left an ocean away. And in many ways, Alan’s exhibit is a homecoming for him personally.

Growing up the son of nationally renowned watercolorist Herbert Shuptrine, Alan could never claim a hometown until the sixth grade, when his family settled on Lookout Mountain. They lived in 20 cities before then because his father was always “chasing the light elsewhere.” The one common factor, however, was that they were always close to the Appalachian Mountains.

When you ask people why they choose to live somewhere they often say ‘it just feels right,’” says Shuptrine. “In this case, there is a buried mineral acting like some sort of magnet. That feeling of home, of familiarity, is what I hope to capture with this series.

Celtic traditions are highlighted throughout, including everything from farming traditions to quilt and whiskey making. Misty mountain ranges, clapboard houses and soft forest floors have an almost ethereal quality under Alan’s expert brushstrokes.

The inspiration for the Serpentine series literally struck in the middle of the night. “I woke up at 3 a.m., shook my wife, Bonny and said, ‘I know what I want to paint,’” he recalls.

In many ways you could say Alan has spent his entire life preparing for this body of work. As an accomplished water gilder for 30 years, he has custom designed each frame for the show. In addition to hand carved and gold leaf accents, each frame is embedded with a precious Serpentine stone.

He has also partnered with New York Times best-selling author Sharyn McCrumb to create a coffee table book, much like his father’s book in the 70’s entitled “Jericho: The South Beheld.”

Alan’s book, “The Serpentine Chain” will feature over 90 paintings and will celebrate the connections between the people of Appalachia and their historical and cultural counterparts in the British Isles. A documentary film is also in the works.

The Serpentine Chain collection will be on display until October of this year. It will then move to the Morris Museum of Art in Augusta, GA (January – April 2018); the Huntsville Museum of Art in Alabama (May – August 2018) and the Museum Center at 5ive Points in Cleveland, TN (September – December 2018).